Hardware accelerator for elliptic curve cryptography

An elliptic curve processing apparatus responsive to a first arithmetic instruction to utilize respective hardwired reduction logic for reduction of respective named curves and responsive to a second arithmetic instruction to utilize a generic reduction circuit for a plurality of generic curves, the generic reduction circuit operable to perform reduction for respective ones of the generic curves using arbitrary irreducible polynomials, respective ones of the arbitrary irreducible polynomials corresponding to respective ones of the generic curves.

An elliptic curve processing apparatus comprising hardwired reduction circuits and a multiplier circuit, the elliptic curve processing apparatus responsive to an arithmetic instruction to utilize a respective one of the hardwired reduction circuits for reduction for respective named curves and the multiplier circuit for reduction for a plurality of generic curves, the multiplier coupled to perform reduction for respective generic curves using arbitrary irreducible polynomials, the arbitrary irreducible polynomials corresponding to respective ones of the generic curves.

A method for performing at least one arithmetic operation on elliptic curves specified over binary polynomial fields, comprising:

• performing the arithmetic operation on respective named curves using respective hardwired reduction logic for reduction operations;
• and
• performing the arithmetic operation on generic curves using a multiplier circuit for reduction.

An elliptic curve processing apparatus operable on elliptic curves specified over binary polynomial fields responsive to a conditional branch instruction according to whether a curve being processed is a generic curve or a named curve.

A method comprising performing a conditional branch instruction according to a value of a storage location indicating whether a curve being processed in an elliptic curve processing apparatus is a generic curve or a named curve.

An apparatus for performing at least one operation on elliptic curves specified over binary polynomial fields, comprising:

• means for performing an arithmetic operation using hardwired reduction logic for a named curve;
• and
• means for performing the arithmetic operation using generic reduction logic for generic curves.

An apparatus for performing operations on elliptic curves specified over binary polynomial fields responsive to a square instruction to perform a squaring operation on an elliptic curve utilizing hardwired reduction logic.

An apparatus for performing operations on elliptic curves specified over binary polynomial fields responsive to a divide instruction to perform a divide operation on an elliptic curves using a polynomial specified in a storage location for reduction.

A computer program product encoded on computer readable media comprising:

• an arithmetic instruction causing an elliptic curve processing apparatus to utilize, according to whether a curve being processed is a generic curve or a named curve, hardwired reduction logic for the arithmetic operation for named curves and to utilize a multiplier operable to perform reduction for respective generic curves using arbitrary irreducible polynomials, the arbitrary irreducible polynomials corresponding to respective ones of the generic curves.

A computer program product encoded on computer readable media for an elliptic curve processor comprising:

• a first arithmetic instruction causing the elliptic curve processor to utilize respective hardwired reduction logic for respective named curves;
• and
• a second arithmetic instruction causing the elliptic curve processor to utilize a multiplier for reduction for a plurality of generic curves, the multiplier operable to perform reduction for respective generic curves using arbitrary irreducible polynomials corresponding to respective ones of the generic curves.

A computer program product encoded on computer readable media for execution on an elliptic curve processing apparatus comprising:

• a conditional branch instruction causing a branch according to whether an elliptic curve being processed is a generic curve or a named curve.

The computer program product as recited in claim method 51 wherein the elliptic curve is specified over a binary polynomial field.

The computer program product as recited in claim method 51 wherein the elliptic curve is specified over a prime integer field.

The computer program product as recited in claim method 51 wherein the conditional branch instruction branches according to a value of a storage location indicating whether a curve being processed is the generic curve or the named curve.